Luc Besson case: the rape charges dismissed by the Court of Cassation

The Court of Cassation definitively dismissed on Wednesday the accusations of rape by actress Sand Van Roy against Luc Besson. She rejected the appeal filed by the actress against the dismissal for the benefit of the filmmaker, according to a decision of which AFP was aware. The highest judicial court in fact considered that there was "no means of such a nature as to allow the admission of the appeal" and therefore declared its non-admissibility.

"This decision confirms the dismissal in favor of Luc Bessonet ratifies all the decisions of the last five years which have found him not guilty", with a dismissal in December 2021, confirmed by the Paris Court of Appeal in May 2022, reacted Thierry Marembert, lawyer for the filmmaker.

“It therefore puts a definitive end to this procedure initiated in 2018, during which Luc Besson was systematically cleared by all the magistrates who examined the case. As a lawyer, I welcome this exemplary procedure, which has allowed the manifestation of the truth which is that Luc Besson is innocent”, added the council, which had received support for the cassation procedure from Patrice Spinosi .

The plaintiff, Sand Van Roy, immediately reacted on Twitter: “the Court of Cassation has decided not to admit my appeal, which once again results in the French courts refusing to consider evidence in the file. ". "I am continuing the proceedings in progress and I will seize the European Court of Human Rights," she added.

During a hearing on May 24 on the appeal, the public rapporteur had proposed the non-admissibility of the appeal, considering that the defense called into question the “sovereign assessment” of the Court of Appeal, that its arguments were not not serious and that the highest French judicial court did not have the right to rule on the need for an additional investigation. The Advocate General had also advocated non-admission, using an argument comparable to that of the rapporteur.

In this emblematic case of

For Sand Van Roy, the influential filmmaker had imposed on him digital penetration, a source of fainting, despite his injunctions to stop. A version according to her accredited by findings, the day of the facts, by the medico-judicial emergencies. Two months later, the actress filed a complaint against the filmmaker for other rapes and sexual assaults committed, according to her, between 2016 and 2018, episodes of a “relationship of professional influence” under threats of “retaliation on his acting career”.

Luc Besson regretted an extramarital relationship in a context of "subordination", while the actress had shot in some of her films. But he indicated twice that he had "no recollection" of some of the facts denounced and recounted a consented report imbued with "gentleness".

This decision is in line with the constant positioning of justice in this case: these accusations had been the subject of a dismissal in December 2021, confirmed by the Paris Court of Appeal in May 2022. The magistrates of the Court of Appeal had swept away the testimonies of three women obtained during the investigation and disputed by Luc Besson, who evoked “kisses in the neck” until an “attempted rape” under possible threat of professional retaliation.

Other women had also testified to Mediapart about inappropriate gestures or sexual assaults, often prescribed, on the part of the director. In its appeal, the actress's defense considered that the judgment was tainted with procedural irregularities, would have "distorted" certain elements of the file, and would also and above all have endorsed an "unfair" procedure from its origin.

During a hearing on May 24, the public rapporteur and the general counsel had proposed the non-admissibility of the appeal, considering that the defense called into question the "sovereign assessment" of the court of appeal, that its arguments were not were not serious and that the Court of Cassation had no right to rule on the need for an additional investigation.

The 64-year-old director and producer, known for The Big Blue, The Fifth Element, Léon or Lucy, was one of the main French figures caught in the wave of accusations from women who claim to have been victims of rape or sexual assaults in the wake of the fall of American producer Harvey Weinstein in October 2017.

In addition to the appeal before the ECHR to come, Sand Van Roy has opened another front by filing a complaint for rape in Belgium against Luc Besson. The Belgian Constitutional Court should rule at the end of 2023 on the admissibility of this complaint.

According to the actress's lawyer, Antoine Gitton, Belgian justice said in an October decision "that there are sufficient incriminating evidence to justify a substantive debate" before a court, and "French justice did not pursue the truth effectively at all”. His client "continues the fight very calmly, especially in Belgium", according to him.